Four Pulaski cross country runners wrapped up their season Nov. 1 at state.
Maggie Gerth and Emerson Fabry competed for the Red Raiders in the girls Division 1 race, while the boys race included Parker Marshall and Arden Gillen.
Gerth led Pulaski by placing 20th in 18:52.8, while Fabry crossed the finish line in 19:27.2, good for 54th place. Marshall placed 82nd in 16:59.3 in the boys race, while Gillen was 87th in 17:01.
“I think I went out OK,” Gillen said. “It’s a big race and it’s really hard to get out.”
Gillen also competed at state last year as a junior and he said he’s glad he had the opportunity to run the course at The Ridges Golf Course one more time.
“It’s really special,” he said. “I worked really hard to get here, and it’s pretty nice to be here with my teammates.”
Gillen said it helped having teammates at state this year.
“Last year, I was the only boy to do it,” he said. “My race plan was I wanted to go out hard, because there are a lot of people here and it’s pretty easy to get stuck back. The competition here is really good. The best people in the state are here. I was just going with the flow.”
Cross country has meant a lot to Gillen over the years.
“I’ve been running since I was 7 years old,” he said. “It was pretty amazing to compete in high school. It was pretty special.”
Gillen will now set his sights on being a distance runner on Pulaski’s track team next spring.
“Track is completely different,” he said. “I’m a distance runner, so cross country is my thing. Track is really different because there are a lot of different people like sprinters.”
